One and Only
by The Creatress
Summary: Artemis/Holly. Ten Song Shuffle Challenge. Various aspects of Artemis and Holly's relationship in ten songs.


Disclaimer- All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Author's Note:

So it seems every single author I know on ff . net has done the Ten Song Challenge, except me. So I closed my eyes, chose a pairing and then picked up my cell phone. (That's where all my music is stored).

Luv

Creatress

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Ten Song Shuffle Challenge

One and Only by Fall Out Boy feat. Timbaland

Holly was waiting for him to speak.

Artemis had tried writing her a letter. His original plan was to make it as short and firm, but sympathetic, as possible. He couldn't see her anymore. He couldn't talk to her anymore. They just couldn't spend any time together anymore. It seemed simple enough. But an hour of sitting at his desk, fountain pen in hand and staring at blank paper had resulted in nothing. He told himself that she deserved to hear it directly from him.

Artemis had called her up. He'd _intended_ to tell her that they couldn't continue their relationship. What he _did_ tell her was that he'd wanted to see her. He could hear the puzzled smile in her voice as she invited him down to her apartment for a visit. After the call ended, he'd told himself that she deserved to hear it in person.

Here he was in her small, but stylish and cozy apartment. She'd greeted him with a hug, and the gentlest kiss to his lips that sent his heart to his throat. They'd talked of so much, but he couldn't recall any of it now. He'd had peace as she took his mind off what he was about to do. He was sitting in an armchair across from her, two hours having flown by when he'd blinked. Time seemed to do that around Holly. So how long had he really been sitting here in silence? Seconds or hours?

Holly didn't seem to mind. She only watched him with a patient smile.

Artemis wished she wouldn't smile. It was making it all so much harder. Her happy, unsuspecting smile was making it impossible.

"Artemis? What is it?"

He wanted to tell her to wipe the smile off her face – he had bad news. This is the last time they'd speak. This was the last time he could ever see her, hear her, touch her… They could never, ever – "Nothing. It's nothing."

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When I Am Queen by Jack Off Jill

Holly was in the LEP's gym, on the treadmill, running at 9 miles per hour for the last thirty-five minutes. Her heart was pounding at over 120 beats per minute; her blood was pounding against her skull; her muscles screaming from the exercise. The comments of the males who passed her by were not the same that she used to get. Ever since she returned from her kidnapping, they were even more spiteful. Even more contemptuous. She never responded; they thought she didn't hear. But she did. She heard them all. But she didn't respond.

The first female in the LEP resulted in the first human who wasn't mind-wiped after meeting the fairies. She was glad he wasn't mind wiped – because now that he would remember the fairies, he would start something else. She knew he would be back. She hadn't been able to defeat him before. She had been powerless to stop him. He had told her to look him in the eye and tell him that he wouldn't succeed. She hadn't been able to respond.

Holly ran, pushing herself further and further than she ever had ever even thought possible.

Becoming the greatest LEP legend would be response enough.

Giving Artemis what he deserved would be response enough.

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The Geeks Were Right by the Faint

Artemis always saw the subtle hints of sadness in Holly's eyes whenever she was above ground, gazing around in open appreciation at the world. There were milliseconds when her gaze would falter on a tree stump or on litter marring the ground or on something needlessly plastic, metallic, and ridiculously _large_, in all its uselessness… That her smile wouldn't quite meet her eyes.

Artemis understood. He understood perfectly. Who said their worlds were too different? Both their mothers had been conservationists – fighting for endangered animals, endangered environments… The same care for the earth that had been instilled in Holly had been programmed into him at a young age.

Artemis suddenly frowned at his choice of words. 'Programmed.' Sometimes, he was ashamed of being human.

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Tarzan and Jane by Aqua

They were too different; their worlds were too different.

Fortunately, Artemis and Holly kept forgetting that. He forgot every time he looked into her mismatched eyes, and felt her gaze on him. Every time his fingers caressed her soft skin, every time they played through her short auburn hair. And whenever they kissed – instigator irrelevant – it was the last thing on his mind.

"You have nice hair," Holly mumbled one day, catching a breath between kisses. She reached up to cup his face in her hands. "You're so cute," she added, pulling him down again.

Artemis gave her a puzzled, but pleasured smile before taking the invite. Suddenly, Holly giggled. "What?" he asked, confused and the tiniest bit irritated. (He's a guy. Giggle during anything intimate and he'll immediately be put off.)

"It's nothing," Holly said, laughing a little. "It's just…"

"Just…?"

"Our first kiss was in a gorilla cage. Isn't that funny?"

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So What by Pink

Artemis had canceled his appointed with her to be with Holly for the day, and Minerva was having a really hard time caring. She was still prettier than him. She was still smarter than him. When she pointed this out to Butler on the phone, he'd agreed with her. His voice sounded funny, but at least he agreed.

At least now, instead of listening to Artemis' go on and on about his experiments, papers, projects and… Haven… She could do her own thing. She had projects to work on, too. And while she didn't care what Artemis and Holly were doing, she spared them a moment's thought. What was so interesting about fairies anyway? Maybe she should go capture one…

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Kryptonite by Three Doors Down

Holly was out to save the world. It was nothing special – that's what the police are supposed to do, right? When she first got her badge, it all seemed so easy and straight-forward. No second-guessing yourself. Always do what it takes to save the world. But somewhere along the way, she met Artemis and the rules were suddenly no more than dried ink on paper.

Every time a human-related crime occurred, her first thought was always that Artemis must be involved. Her second would always be a prayer that they would be alright by the end of it.

Artemis had his slip-ups. He promised his father, his mother and, most importantly in all its silence, to Holly, that he would try to live in accordance with the law. But crime was sometimes like a drug. It was more than the profits; it was the thrill, the rush of adrenaline, the feeling that he could escape something that held others captured. No one was above the law, but slipping through its cracks made Artemis feel like he came close to being untouchable by every statute and bylaw ever passed.

Every time he did, he worried about Holly. Sometimes, he wanted to argue with her. How many times had he helped her? How many times had he come to the LEP's aid? Haven would have been taken over by someone even crazier than Artemis if it hadn't been him.

They hadn't found a solution yet. They should, soon. And for all of their arguing about the law, one protecting it, the other breaking it, both knew that they were united in their unease. Though they'd both do whatever it took to be together in the end, how many clashes and confrontations could they survive?

They would be the end of each other one day, but at least they could go down together.

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The Escapist by Nightwish

There was the vaguest whisper of a dream that Artemis found solace in every time he found life unbearable. His parents arguing in the next room, his father being cold and distant, the crushing loneliness that haunted his life… His father's disappearance, his mother's illness, the crushing loneliness that _was_ his life. Sometimes diligent work couldn't help him, and in those moments, he just lay in his bed, closed his eyes and lost himself to the crimson sparks at the back of his mind.

Artemis followed the flickers until he was safe within his own mind, in his own world. A world where the stars were brighter, the heavens were closer and it rained diamonds. A world where he knew a unique and beautiful girl, who enchanted and tormented him with her enigma. He never spent enough time there to figure out her name.

Artemis knew what he was doing was dangerous – every textbook said his mind should be in a vulnerable state. There was nothing intelligent about doing something that would entrap him in the same dementia that had claimed his mother.

Finally, one day Artemis left his world and awoke. Long ago, he'd woken up and murmured a word that had sounded foreign to his ears. He said it now with more conviction.

"Fairies."

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Faded from the Winter by Iron and Wine

Things were going to be different from now on. There was no use dwelling on the past; they could only drown in the plethora of hardships they'd faced together up until this point. There a million things he wished he could go back and fix. A million things he wished he could have done differently.

He wished he had kissed her back.

The world's conventions frowned down upon them, but all the approval he needed came from the one person who had the most right to damn their relationship. He could hear it in her voice and feel it in her words.

_In another time_. The future.

The hard part was behind them. Things were going to be different from now on.

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Mannequin by Cradle of Filth

All her life, Holly had trusted her world, its government and its protectors. She'd trusted them to safeguard her and her people. She remembered being barely young enough to walk, clinging to her mother's arm and staring in wide-eyed wonder at the soldiers. They were garbed in emerald and gold, and had welcoming, safe auras that somehow fit with the strong warriors' vibes they emitted. And almost as clearly, she remembered her earliest visions of the Council. There were no princesses and princes in her fairy tales; only the better, the _real_, Members of the Council when her parents told her of their history.

She wished she could still believe in them; believe in her job. But unforeseen laws, written as soon as the world became aware of her so-called 'affair,' had her trapped in a make-shift cell and her childlike beliefs dead in the wake of reality. The Council was not the glorious entity of truth and justice; it was mere autocratic power that kept its citizens in the dark of the underworld. It smothered unsuspecting followers in its lies and deceit and propaganda.

Why did she have to be the one to hit with the truth?

Her lover had his two faces just as the Council did. He was cold and calculating, hiding his warmth and kindness. He was loving and caring, hiding dark intentions. He could be as deceiving and as protective as the Council. He could betray her as severely as the Council betrayed her. But at least, she could be ready for his changes of heart. At least she had an idea of when to expect them. At least he always told her the painful, healing truth in the end. Eventually. Unlike the Council.

Maybe Artemis had seen it coming. Maybe that was why he had been so unwilling to let her return alone. He had all but locked her up to keep her from venturing back to the place of her childhood. She'd kissed him goodbye when he was dead asleep, and promised him that she would be back in his arms before morning.

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Honey Honey by Feist

Holly missed him so much. Her best friend was right; the truth was obvious in her eyes. It was obvious in the aching emptiness inside her.

Artemis was gone. The truth had been removed from his genius mind, and now he was lost in the sea of his own life. He couldn't find something he couldn't remember amidst the school work, his family, and his crimes. He couldn't remember her if he wanted to. It was impossible.

There was still an insistent voice at the back of Holly's mind. It sounded oddly like Artemis'. He would never give up knowledge, his greatest weapon, for anything. He would never surrender knowledge of Haven and of her.

She would haunt his dreams the way he haunted hers. Busy and lost in the fast days of their two separate worlds, they were thinking of each other. The day Artemis decided to return, he would.

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A/n

Okay, I hope that wasn't too bad. A note: Mannequin was REALLY hard. It's impossible to figure out their lyrics! And yes, in Honey Honey, they don't get together in the end, but… It was just too hard to write that. Artetmis and Holly stubbornly refused to stay apart. :P

And on a side note that has nothing to do with anything: To anybody in Ontario on this confusing, confusing day… Happy Family Day! Happy President's Day to Americans!

REVIEW! Thanks.


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